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Chris Regas • Teacher 10.17.2010

Experience NEW LIFE Discovering Truth to Apply in Life & Reach Out in Love!

What Is This Series All About? Three Questions in One: Is Jesus the only way to salvation?

Q 1 Will anyone experience eternal, conscious torment under God’s wrath in hell?

Jesus says: YES, and I love people enough to come to earth, warn them about it with conviction and compassion, and offer Myself as the only Way out of it. Matthew 25:31-46

Q 2 Is the work of Jesus NECESSARY for salvation?

Pluralism says: NO! There are many paths to God; He has many faces.

Pluralism Defined: The Burger King (Have It Your Way) View or the All Roads Lead to God View All religions have the same moral and spiritual value, and offer the same potential for achieving salvation, however that

“salvation” is defined. Jesus says: YES! I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6

Five Reasons Why Jesus Is Absolutely Necessary for the Salvation of All People Groups, Not Just Certain People Groups

Reason #1 Jesus Is the Second ADAM, the universal Head of All of God’s People Romans 5:17-19 ➤ The work of the Second Adam is as UNIVERSAL as the sin of the first Adam. ADAM = First Adam CHRIST = Second Adam One Act of Disobedience One Act of Obedience Made MANY Sinners Makes MANY Righteous ALL in Adam Die ALL in Christ Live

This is as true for His resurrection as it is for His crucifixion. 1 Corinthians 15:21-23 ➤ The work of the Second Adam is only received by GRACE through FAITH in the Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17; 1-2; 1

Corinthians 15:2 1) The “many” impacted by the first Adam is ALL of humanity who are born sinners, sin, and die. Romans 5:12;

3:23

2) The “all” impacted by the Second Adam is SOME of humanity who are born again by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, BUT THE WORK OF CHRIST IS JUST UNIVERSAL AS THE SIN OF ADAM!

Reason #2 Jesus Is the ONE Mediator between God and Man. 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Acts 4:12

“The problem between God and humanity is one, and God sent one mediator to deal with it.” ~John Piper

Jesus: Is He Really Necessary to Be Saved? Lesson 6

“There couldn’t possibly be one way to God.” “I am a Christian who believes there are certainly many more paths to God other than

Christianity––so––I am a freethinking Christian who believes that––who believes in my way but I don’t believe it is the only way with 6 billion people here on the planet.”

~Oprah Winfrey

“Christ Himself is the one way to God, and to obscure that fact is, in effect, to deny Christ and to disavow the gospel itself.”

~John MacArthur

Reason #3 Jesus Is the Lamb Who Purchased a People from ALL Nations. Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9-10; 14:6-7; 17:14; 19:16

“God did not plan multiple saviors for multiple peoples. He planned one Savior for all peoples. His atonement is the means in every culture by which men and women become part of His kingdom.” ~John Piper

Reason #4 Jesus Died to Gather God’s SCATTERED Children from All Over the World. John 11:51-52

“The saving work of Jesus is not meant by God to be limited to one people but is the means by which God would save His elect from all the peoples of the world.” ~John Piper

Reason #5 Jesus Is the ONLY remedy for universal unrighteousness. Romans 3:9-23

Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. For the wages of sin is death, BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS

ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD. Romans 3:29-30

ONLY ONE CONCLUSION: JESUS Is ABSOLUTELY Necessary for the Salvation of ALL Peoples!

There is only one way to God: the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords.

Then [Jesus] said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Luke 24:46-47

1John 5:10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.

Ephesians 4:4-6 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the llfe. No one can come to the Father except through Me. Hebrews 5:8-9 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. 1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. Matthew 11:27 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” John 1:11-12 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 3:16-18 Jesus says, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son." John 5:21-22 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, John 12:48 Jesus says, But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. Philippians 2:10-11 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Revelation 1:18 I am the living one. I died, but look—I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave. Revelation 1:5-6 and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.